144- TRAVELS IN UPI'ER 



gage should likewise be landed. It was in vaiii 

 for me to oppose with all my might this seizure : 

 the sturdy Mameluc, who u as surrounded by seve- 

 ral soldiers, would listen to nothing. The boat, he 

 said, was for the service of the Kiaschef, and no 

 person ought to dare to divert it from its desti- 

 nation. I displayed to him the letters of the Beys ; 

 he replied, that he laughed at all the Beys who 

 commanded at Cairo v^'hilst he was master at Sahet, 

 Not having it in my power to resist the violence 

 of this man. who, like all those to whom power is 

 ill adapted, believed himself a great personage, I 

 ordered my camels to be brought to re-convey ray 

 baggage to Farschont. During the time that they 

 were occupied in loading them, the Mameluc 

 called my interpreter, and desired him to propose 

 to me that I should give him a chequin, and that 

 for this consideration he would leave me the boat. 

 I ordered him to be told that I would not even 

 give him a medina. He reduced his demand to 

 a pataca, the half of v/hich I likewise refused to 

 give ; at last he begged me as a favour to make 

 him a present of a quarter of a pataca, about four- 

 teen pence. In order to avoid any longer delays, 

 I paid it to him, and the vile slave received it as 

 the price of an imposition practised upon me, arid 

 which he had calculated according to the import- 

 ance of his government. 



A great 



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